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Klark returns to Wellington this morning after checking in with Kofi Annan at the UN
in New York. She's a faithful UN servant.

She spends a significant amount of time outside New Zealand.

shaggy eel,
I know your lady P.M. is a socialist...at the same time I must admit that she did
a great job of promoting tourism to New Zealand on the radio interview.
Phone calls from listeners were taken and there was even one fellow who
said he flew (from the USA) to visit New Zealand (and friends there) twice a year
for the past thirty years.
Another caller inquired about the rules for foreign citizens moving to NZ and
setting up a business.

Just my naive observation as an outsider...NZ needs someone with Klark's "gift of gab"...
but a bit more towards "the center" for P.M.

Fortunately, Klark can't significantly mess up what seems to be a wonderful
tourist destination with lots of nice people...

Oh, another tidbit...
Ebert and Roeper (our big-time movie reviews) have declared the second film
of the "Rings" triology to be one of the best good versus evil action films.
I know it's a stretch, but wonder if directer Jackson was influenced in any way by the
events of 9-11 (and afterwards) when he was editing the film.
If nothing else, Mr. Jackson must be helping the NZ budget when all the
"Rings" revenue starts flowing in!

,,, Peter Jackson made his first film "Bad Taste" in the mid 1980s on a very low budget. A lot of the scenery in that film was shot in Makara, a hilly wind swept area behind New Zealand's largest suburb, Karori (Wellington). From the outset Jackson's attention to detail when it came to blood and guts massacre scenes was obvious.

His 1990s film "Heavenly Creatures" was first class and a quantum jump in ability. I haven't seen the Lord of the rings movies yet but went on site during construction at one of the location shoots at Kaitoke, north of Upper Hutt. He's spent a lot of time working out the right areas to shoot in.